Devices for feeding animals, such as horses, are well known to the prior art.
In 1874, U.S. Pat. No. 150,423 issued to C. W. Link et al. on a horse trough. This horse trough, which was made out of cast iron, was heavy and difficult to mount. When the interior of this trough was contacted with acidic feed materials and/or moisture, it would tend to corrode and pit, thereby contaminating the feed and creating pockets in the device for bacterial growth.
The Link et al. feeder contains flanges gg partially projecting over the opening of the feeder. Although these flanges provide some protection against feed material being thrown out of the feeder from side to side, they do not provide protection in those areas of the feeder opening in which they do not appear. Furthermore, because each of flanges gg are aligned in substantially the same direction, thereby creating an oval opening, they limit the animal to feeding in only one direction.
About 90 years after the issuance of the Link et al. patent, in 1965, the problem of providing a suitable horse feeder had still not yet been solved. In that year U.S. Pat. No. 3,205,861 issued to Robert D. Moore. The Moore patent, referring to devices such as that disclosed in the Link et al. patent (which was cited during the prosecution of the Moore patent), noted that prior art horse feeders ". . . usually employed metal plates or flat rings, but these were not satisfactory because they . . . tended to cut the animal and discouraged it from eating as much as it should. The flat plates prevented adequate circulation of air around the food, so that spoilage of food increased . . . . These devices also got in the way and prevented good cleaning of the trough. There tended to be hidden pockets and overlaps where old feed could collect and where bacterial, spoilage, flies, and so on could act on it . . ." (see column 1, lines 24 to 36).
The feeding device described in the Moore patent, however, is not entirely suitable for use as a horse feeder. In the first place, the device of Moore utilizes a feed saver ring unit 30 which is attached to Moore's feeding device and which comprises a circular ring of round metal wire covered with a plastic coating and spaced away from the sidewalls of Moore's device; the spaces between the sidewalls and the ring allow the feeding animal to throw feed up and out of the device, especially when the device is full of feed. In the second place, the feed saver ring is only supported by three anchoring devices (32, 33, and 34); because of this relatively flimsy construction, horses can readily chew on the ring wire, bend the ring wire, and so deform the feed saver ring that access to the feeding device is limited or precluded.
The Moore device has been marketed by the Carnation Company for many years. In its use, because the horses often chew on the ring wire and cut through or remove the plastic coating on the ring, the metal on the ring will often be exposed. Thus, when a horse is feeding on the Moore device, it will tend to ". . . feel a hot or cold metal ring"; and the exposed metal ". . . might tend to cut the horse or to frighten it" (see column 2 of the Moore patent, lines 58-63).
It is an object of this invention to provide a unitary feeding device which cannot readily be damaged by the feeding animal.
It is another object of this invention to provide a lightweight feeding device which weighs from about 1 to about 8 pounds.
It is another object of this invention to provide a feeding device with substantially inert nonmetallic surfaces which will not readily be subject to corrosion or pitting.
It is another object of this invention to provide a feeding device which may be approached by the animal from different directions and used in different positions.
It is another object of this invention to provide a feeding device which will not introduce contaminants into the feed.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a feeding device which can readily be cleaned.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a feeding device with a continuous flange around its top portion;
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a feeding device which can be mounted either in a corner or to a flat wall;
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a feeding device which may be manufactured in different colors.